Holl's Department of Philosophy

"The interior renovation of a 1890 corner building at 5 Washington Place (close to Washington Square Park) is to be used by the NYU Department or Philosophy.

Rising from a cork raft of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Philosophy is organized around a backbone of light. Here it isn't only a metaphor of light to learning, but practical space of interaction between students and professors who can meet casually on the large landings. A new stair shaft below a new skylight joins the 6-level building vertically with a shifting porosity of light and shadow that change seasonally. The inspirations of words form Wittgenstein's text in Remarks on Color is elaborated in the "shadow of white light" phenomena. We installed prismatic film on the south-facing stairwell windows which occasionally breaks the sunlight into a prismatic rainbow."